To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch

 

White House Memo

To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch

 

The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.

 

Erica L. Green

By Erica L. Green

Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/us/politics/trump-billionaire-iran-war-cost.html

May 17, 2026

Updated 12:45 p.m. ET

 

With his generational wealth, his 20-acre Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and his lucrative family businesses around the world, President Trump has never purported to be an ordinary American.

 

Instead, he has argued that he could use his business savvy to help lift up the country’s forgotten men and women.

 

But in recent weeks, as Americans feel deep economic strain from the war he launched in Iran, Mr. Trump’s actions and words have opened him up to accusations that he is either out of touch with — or indifferent to — the lives of everyday Americans.

 

The costs are ballooning from his renovation, re-decoration and building spree in Washington, D.C., and at the White House. He goes on social media posting frenzies that often focus on his pet projects, gripes and personal triumphs, including a 22-year-old newspaper review of his television show, “The Apprentice.” But perhaps the most striking example came on Tuesday, when Mr. Trump was asked whether the economic hardship Americans are feeling would motivate him to make a deal to end the war.

 

“Not even a little bit,” he said.

 

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Mr. Trump continued, a stunningly frank admission that came after weeks spent either downplaying the conflict’s economic toll or simply asking Americans to be patient. His only consideration, Mr. Trump said, was preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon: “That’s all.”

 

That same day, the Labor Department reported that last month, inflation in the United States accelerated at its fastest rate in three years, and gas reached more than $4.50 a gallon.

 

Democrats immediately seized on the remark, which will undoubtedly be used in attack ads during the midterm campaigns, and said it was a sign of the disconnect between the priorities of the president and those of the electorate.

 

“Donald Trump just said the quiet part out loud: he doesn’t care about Americans who are struggling to make ends meet in his economy,” Rosemary Boeglin, the communications director of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.

 

Even Mr. Trump’s allies struggled to defend the statement. Vice President JD Vance, asked this week whether he agreed with the president, said: “Well, I don’t think the president said that, I think that’s a misrepresentation of what the president said.”

 

But in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Mr. Trump doubled down.

 

“That’s a perfect statement,” he said. “I’d make it again.”

 

He acknowledged that there is a “short-term pain,” associated with the war, but said, “the pain is much less than people thought.”

 

The White House said that Mr. Trump was focused on defending the United States’ longstanding security.

 

“The president’s ultimate responsibility is the safety and security of Americans,” said Steven Cheung, a White House spokesman. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if action wasn’t taken, they’d have one, which threatens all Americans.”

 

Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist based in Arizona, said that the comment was a “truth bomb” from Mr. Trump, akin to the president’s well-known claim that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing political support. But, he noted, this year’s midterm elections are close and Republicans risk losing full control of Congress.

 

“He flaunted his wealth, and people didn’t mind,” Mr. Marson said. “But now it’s sort of like: ‘Wow, you’re really not feeling our pain, you are adding to our pain, and on top of that, you don’t care about our pain. That could lead to political problems for him. He is not on the ballot, but this is an important ballot for him.”

 

Mr. Trump is proudly a billionaire and built a populist message on standing up for those left behind. His supporters and allies have long argued that by virtue of his wealth, he could never be bought by special interests.

 

Still, in his second term in office, Mr. Trump has profited from the presidency like never before. Most recently, his middle son Eric accompanied him to China, raising questions about the lines between government business and private enterprise. Eric Trump leads the Trump family business, which has flirted with Chinese business deals over the years.

 

A new CNN poll found that 77 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, thought Mr. Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their communities.

 

Inflation rose a startling 3.8 percent in April. The average price of gas has gone up more than 40 percent since the war with Iran started in February. And grocery prices soared faster in April than any month in nearly four years, driving up the cost of everything from tomatoes to seafood.

 

James Carville, longtime Democratic strategist who worked on former President Bill Clinton’s campaign when he famously declared “I feel your pain,” said that Mr. Trump’s declaration was at least not “pandering.”

 

But, he added, it broke a cardinal political rule: do not confirm an existing suspicion.

 

“It’s what lawyers call an admission against interest,” he said. “It’s the greatest admission against interest in the history of the presidency.”

 

Past administrations have taken a different strategy to address Americans facing high costs during wartime. While President George W. Bush would often point to economic gains during his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he often expressed empathy for families and businesses who had to endure gas prices that increased to more than than $4 during his tenure.

 

“You know, the words on how to define the economy don’t reflect the anxiety the American people feel,” he said during a 2008 Rose Garden news conference. “You know, the average person doesn’t really care what we call it.”

 

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as the chief economist for Mr. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers when the war in Afghanistan began, and is now president of the American Action Forum, said that the key difference between the two presidents’ messaging was a disciplined communications strategy by both the president and his cabinet.

 

“The mechanics were in place for the president to think about what he was getting people into,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin said. “Trump does everything himself, he’s the chief spokesman. And there was no planning process for what might happen.”

 

Members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet have struck discordant notes at times, as well.

 

This month, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, attracted attention for starring in a YouTube series promoting “The Great American Road Trip” — at a moment when the average price of gas has soared. Kash Patel, the embattled F.B.I. director, did a V.I.P. snorkeling excursion at Pearl Harbor. Mr. Vance announced as part of his new assignment to oversee an anti-fraud task force that the administration would scrutinize and halt some public benefits at a time when many Americans are worried about their financial futures.

 

As pundits spent much of the week chewing over Mr. Trump’s comment, the president was in China for a diplomatic trip. In social media posts throughout the trip, Mr. Trump and the White House shared glossy videos of his grand welcome and his appearance at a banquet dinner where the menu included lobster in tomato soup and roast duck.

 

And as he headed back to the White House on Friday, he indicated one lesson he drew from his trip.

 

“China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!” he wrote on Truth Social. “It’s under construction, ahead of schedule, and will be the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the U.S.A.”

 

Katie Glueck contributed reporting.

 

Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.